Cell cycle: molecular targets for diagnosis and therapy: tumor suppressor genes and cell cycle progression in cancer.

A significant portion of published literature is dedicated to describing the cloning and the characterization of proteins involved in the progression of the cell cycle, which govern cell growth both in cancer and normal ontogenesis. With this abundance of information, the cascading pathways of molecular events that occur in the cell cycle are proving to be exceedingly complicated. The purpose of this conference was to attract the leading clinical and basic science investigators in the growth control field with a final goal to determine how this current wealth of knowledge can be used to impact upon patient care and management by the design of novel adjuvant therapeutics specifically targeted at tumor cells and the identification of molecular diagnostic and/or prognostic markers in an efficient and cost effective manner.